In the first episode of the Jewellers Academy Jewellers’ Retreat, we were tasked with creating a pendant for someone special. My fellow jewellers—Kath Dare, Kate Seow, and I—each had our own unique design approaches to this challenge.
As soon as the project was announced, I knew I would be making the pendant for my friend Vanessa. She's been a steadfast supporter of my jewellery hobby from the outset, standing by me through life's ebbs and flows. She has recently been braving the challenges of breast cancer treatment.
The Japanese concept of Kintsugi seemed particularly resonant with Vanessa's journey. The philosophy behind this practice is rooted in the belief that breakage and repair are part of the history of an object, and rather than disguising these, they should be highlighted and celebrated. Traditionally, this involves the repair of broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
I aimed to emulate this process in precious metals while avoiding the use of resins and lacquer, to maintain my own style of fine jewellery manufacture. Previously, I have used excess gold solder on silver to achieve a kintsugi-like effect. However, I aimed for a clearer contrast without oxidising the silver, as it was important to me to preserve the bright silver colour in this design. So, I turned to a technique I learned from Olivia Schlevogt, an award-winning goldsmith, at Creat Studio in Faversham. This involved fusing high carat gold wire (22ct) to silver. Olivia may not still be teaching at Creat now, but I believe she offers private tuition from her workshop in Rochester, near London.
While high carat gold fuses effectively with sterling silver, its affinity for Argentium is notably superior. My plan was to embellish the design's edges with gold foil using the keum-boo method. Keum-boo, a Korean technique, attaches thin gold sheets to silver with heat and pressure. However, the success of this bond can be hampered by copper oxides. Thus, when using sterling silver in keum-boo, it is necessary to first depletion-gild it, which means removing surface copper oxide layers through a process of sequential heating and pickling in acid. Due to the time constraints of the show, extensive depletion gilding was not an option for me. Hence, I opted for Argentium, a sterling silver alloy with lower copper content that beautifully bonds with keum-boo without the need for depletion gilding.
I arranged the fine gold wire in a pattern that mimicked shattered silver, pieced back together. After fusing the wire, I passed the piece through a rolling mill with watercolour paper to add a subtle texture. After achieving the desired thickness and texture, I cut out the cushion shape, mirroring the shape of the stone, and added a slight dome for depth.
Once the edges were filed and cleaned up, I soldered on the 22ct bezel. Although Argentium has some very useful properties when it comes to fusing and lack of fire stain, it can be rather temperamental when heated. So I had to perform the soldering operation with great care, to prevent the piece cracking or collapsing.
The bail was made from 18ct yellow gold. This choice was strategic; 18ct gold's strength makes it ideal for structural components. In contrast, the softer quality of 22ct gold is perfect for stone setting, offering a striking colour contrast against both the stone and the silver base.
To shape the tube for the bail's top, I first filled a longer section with fine sand. This provided stability as I gently bent it around a mandrel to achieve the desired curve. After cutting it to the necessary length, I drilled a hole for the wire. With the bail thus prepared, I then proceeded to carefully solder it onto the main piece. I originally used a third hand and titanium strips to support the whole construct but it kept refusing to solder. So I supported the main piece as before but employed touch soldering to attach the bail. This is a delicate but effective method where the smaller component to be soldered is held with tweezers, with solder applied. Then, it is gently touched to the larger piece as it reaches the right temperature. This technique, requiring steady hands and patience, is very useful for intricate soldering operations.
To prevent solder running from the bezel onto my textured silver surface, I used Masking Mud by Ronda Coryell to protect the solder joins. I purchased this from the US but there are lots of alternatives you can use, such as Technoflux, yellow ochre, jewellers’ rouge, graphite pencil, and Tipp-Ex. A word of caution: it is important to work in a well-ventilated area, as heating some of these substances can emit rather nasty fumes.
Once I was happy with the soldering, I cleaned and polished the piece before applying the keum-boo. The challenge with this was supporting the piece whilst applying the gold. I sandwiched the pendant between two pieces of honeycomb soldering block on top of the Beehive Kiln. You can also use a normal hot plate for this, but I find it harder to control the heat with the latter and my hands get very hot. With the beehive kiln, you can position the vent away from you and I find that I am able to work on the piece for longer without struggling. For awkward shapes, or if you don’t have a mini kiln or hot plate, you can also use a torch. For burnishing on the gold, I prefer using agate burnishers because gold can stick to steel when it gets hot. It is useful to have a few burnishers so you can swap them out (placing them on a steel block to cool) as there is a risk of cracking the agate with excess heat.
There are lots of excellent keum-boo tutorials available online, including some very comprehensive information from Joanne Tinley Jewellery. I would also recommend learning from Hendrike Bar-Meltzer, who uses the technique extensively in her work. You can make your own keum-boo sheet but I like to use the ready-made sheet from Metal Clay Ltd as it is a good thickness and saves a lot of time at the rolling mill.
The final stage involved setting the stone. I feel faceted stones often take all the limelight, and there's something very satisfying about a juicy tourmaline cabochon. The turquoise blue tourmaline, selected for its unique imperfections and vibrant colour, resonates with the kintsugi philosophy and Vanessa’s favourite hue.
The key to a good bezel setting is to make the bezel as close a fit to the stone as possible. Any gaps, however tiny, can make a simple task into a complete nightmare. After pushing the bezel over the stone, I did the final cleanup and bright-cut the inner bezel with a No. 10 (1mm) flat graver. You can see the final piece in the video below (courtesy of the Jewellers Academy).
For an in-depth look at the creation of this piece and to see the wonderful creations by Kath and Kate, check out Episode 1 of the Jewellers' Retreat.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know below. Would love to hear from you!
(Render courtesy of Anelia Kuprina and process photographs with kind permission of the Jewellers Academy)
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